Of course, Lance would think of that. But how much of an impact does that second space really have on the environment? For a rough look, I fired up The Google and my trusty VisiCalc and tried to calculate how much paper would be used if all the books in the USA were printed with a double space between each sentence. I assumed that the space after the period takes up the same amount of room as a character, which it did with fixed-width fonts, which is what they used in the study so I think is fair.

But the results are shocking: with an average of 5,294 extra spaces per book, it resulted in over a quarter of a billion extra pages, 26,471 trees and about 163 acres of forest, eaten up just for that extra space between each sentence.

Whiners will complain that books have variable width fonts; others might even make the case that has been made in support of wood construction, that chopping trees is good and that every little extra space sequesters carbon and makes room for new carbon-sucking trees. But our TreeHugger position is that Less is More, and that one should use as little of a resource as possible. And that includes spaces after periods.

Seeing the results, Lance noted that "I’m pro Oxford comma, but it probably kills a small wilderness every year...." We will study that next.